A collection of articles especially for women, based on the inspired Word of God, reflecting one woman's walk of Faith.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

What Are You Ashamed Of?

“Be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner…” (2
Tim. 1:8)

When
I read Second Timothy, I am always struck by how way off the mark we can be
when it comes to being ashamed. In our obsession to look good, we shun the
authentic and embrace the impressive. There
are other places I could cite besides those in this book, but there is enough
here to make me take a good, hard look at myself.

In
this second letter to his protégé, Timothy, Paul cautions him never to be
ashamed of the testimony of Jesus Christ (v. 8). “I’m not ashamed,” says Paul,
and he wasn’t (v. 12). He was willing to suffer anything for His testimony,
even the stigma of being called a jailbird.

Let’s
get one thing straight at the outset: Jesus Christ is no one to be ashamed of.
No one ever accused Him of any wrongdoing and made it stick. Some people invoke
the name of God lavishly in their conversation, but are sparing in their
mention of the manifestation of God on this earth—the Man, Christ Jesus. “God,”
a word that can be very generic in our pluralistic society, can be bandied
about with little fear of ostracism; but exalting Jesus Christ, the name to
which every knee will bow (Philip. 2:10), and the only name whereby anyone can
be saved (Acts 4:10-12), can sometimes get you labeled as exclusive and narrow
minded. But it’s little enough price to pay, as far as I’m concerned. Paul was
put in jail for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and the Apostle John was left to
die on a lonely island (Rev. 1:9); and I defy anyone to find where either of
them regretted it.

But
there is something else in the first two chapters of which we should not be
ashamed, but often are. Paul’s other wish for the young preacher was that he
not be ashamed of him—Paul—because he was a prisoner of Rome. In fact, he goes
on to mention that one glowing attribute of their mutual friend, Onesiphorus, was
that he was never ashamed of the Apostle’s “chain” (v. 16). This observation
challenges me to ask myself, “Am I ashamed of my brothers or sisters in the
Lord who, though maybe not jailbirds, are still sometimes shunned; not because
they are guilty of gross sin, but because they are “different.” For one reason
or another, they see nonessentials differently than others of us do. They may
be too controversial, or (as Paul was accused of being) too confrontational.
They’re clapping on the second and fourth beats rather than the traditional
first and third, as it were. We don’t have to agree with, or even understand,
all of God’s children; but we do have to love them. And if Jesus Christ isn’t
ashamed of you and me (Heb. 2:11), we have no reason to be ashamed of them.

Did
Paul happen to mention anything in his letter that we should be ashamed of? As a matter of fact, he did. I verse fifteen
of chapter two, he said, “Study to shew
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth.” If we’re not reading and studying the
Bible—working at it—for the approval of God, and not other people, we should
hang our heads in utter shame.

Shame
is too important to waste on the wrong things. It can lead us to repentance toward
God…or it can make us cowards. It can spur us on to excellence in our Christian
lives…or it can turn us into ineffective Pharisees. And you can be sure, it
will be one of the things that determines whether or not we will be “ashamed
before him at his coming” (1 Jno. 2:28).

Salle J. Sandlin (Mrs. Richard)

A Little About Me

I am a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. My husband, Richard, and I have been married 52 years. During that time, he pastored two Baptist churches and traveled in evangelism and Bible conference work. We also served as missionaries in Northern Ireland for three years. I was a stay-at-home wife and mother until our four children were grown; then I enrolled in college and majored in English.

I love words. I enjoy trying to put them together in interesting, entertaining, and helpful ways. Most of all, I am intrigued with the possibility of being able to glorify Jesus Christ, the One who is called, “The Word” (John 1). These various articles are the result of my attempt to do that.

NEW!! The Image in the Mirror

Click the image to find out how you can see and obtain my new book of fifty reflections on how to be a woman of God in a godless culture.